"No!" replied Landon. "Mr. Bruce was fond of life and he adored that child! Cut that out!" "Then," pursued Eve, "could Vernie have killed herself and her uncle?" "Rubbish!" cried Landon, "don't say such things, Eve. Professor, are you answered?" "And remember," put in Tracy, "the two were the width of this hall apart. What means could have been employed?" "What means were employed, anyway?" said Norma. "Oh, what did kill those people?" "The utter absence of any material means proves the fact that it was supernatural," declared the Professor. "I only mentioned those other theories to prove their absurdity. Now, as I say, I am a convert to spiritualism in all its form and phases. How can one help being after this? And I, for one, desire to stay here for a time and I feel sure that the departed spirits of our friends will communicate with us." Milly shuddered at the idea, but Eve's wonderful eyes glowed with a sudden anticipation. "Oh, Professor Hardwick!" she exclaimed, "how splendid! Will you really stay here a while? Will you, Milly? I can't stay unless you and Wynne do. Will you stay, Norma? and you, Mr. Tracy?" "Oh, I can't!" Milly moaned. "I needn't, need I, Wynne?" "No; darling, not if you don't want to. I can't see, Eve, why you wish to stay here. It gives me the horrors to think of it. And if you really expect spiritual communications from Vernie or Mr. Bruce, you can receive them just as well anywhere else." "Not just as well," demurred the Professor. "The conditions here are ideal for investigations. We haven't taken it up seriously, you know." "But, Miss Carnforth, can't you ask some other friends to come, if the Landons prefer to return to New York? I don't doubt you know the right ones, who could chaperon you, and also take an interest in our work." "Yes," began Eve, thoughtfully, and then Stebbins came into the room. "The doctors through yet?" he asked; "what they found out?" "No, they're not through yet," answered Landon. "Sit down, Stebbins, and talk a little bit. I wish you'd tell us of anything you know of your own experience, not hearsay, mind you, that has happened in this house, that can truly be called supernatural." "Well, that ha'nted room,----" "Wait a minute," interrupted Landon, "don't tell us anything about that haunted room that you don't _know_, personally, to be a fact." "I know it's ha'nted," asserted Stebbins, doggedly. "I've slept there and I've seen ghosts spookin' around in it." "Do you think there are really such things as ghosts?" "I know it." "And do you think they could be responsible for the death of Mr. Bruce and Miss Reid?" "I know it. That Thorpe he says it's murder, but he can't guess how it could be. That fool of a Crawford, he don't know nothing, of any sort. Wayburn, now, he's a fair doctor, but, good land! what can they learn from a post-mortem? Those people was warned, and them warnin's was carried out. What more is there to learn?"